Portable HF Antenna Options
- Thread starter vk3tbs
- Start date
2RC111
Newbie
- Joined
- Sep 21, 2024
- Messages
- 1
Nice portable antenna setup and good choice on a portable rig, thanks for sharing. We used to sell those radios actually the Anytone AT-6666 version not the rebranded Radiodity version, same radio. The new "Pro" version of that radio is capable of 15-10 meters and is 80W, not really worth upgrading unless you really want 15 meters.
I too found unsubstantial differences in performance between the commercially available portable antennas I tested. So short of fielding a full sized yagi antenna I designed a portable 11/10Meter Broadband HexBeam antenna. Going from compromised portable verticals to a resonant 2 element beam with gain at low takeoff angles was a game changer for long-haul DX. Wasn't long before friends and other operators ask if we would build them one. So we began selling portable HexBeams on eBay and launched POTAbeam.com. Our current version of the antenna only takes less than 7min to deploy:
If you're an antenna geek like me, I highly recommend building or buying a Hexbeam for testing. Properly tuned they can offer a wide bandwidth (3MHz per band) with 5-10 dbi gain.
Cheers and 73
Bill
I too found unsubstantial differences in performance between the commercially available portable antennas I tested. So short of fielding a full sized yagi antenna I designed a portable 11/10Meter Broadband HexBeam antenna. Going from compromised portable verticals to a resonant 2 element beam with gain at low takeoff angles was a game changer for long-haul DX. Wasn't long before friends and other operators ask if we would build them one. So we began selling portable HexBeams on eBay and launched POTAbeam.com. Our current version of the antenna only takes less than 7min to deploy:
If you're an antenna geek like me, I highly recommend building or buying a Hexbeam for testing. Properly tuned they can offer a wide bandwidth (3MHz per band) with 5-10 dbi gain.
Cheers and 73
Bill
